After the completion of the brake element forming step, the friction materials used as friction blocks in the brake shoes of drum brakes and as brake pads in disk brakes for vehicles and other equipment (such as clutch plates) must undergo a thermal treatment process which both enhances the characteristics of said materials and makes it possible to eliminate any residual gases.
In particular, in the case of brake pads, the pads upon leaving the forming press are heated for a certain period of time at temperatures generally slightly higher than 200° C., usually by means of convection furnaces.
However, standard thermal treatment processes employed today do not feature sufficient flexibility to allow them use the same plant to process brake pads that require thermal cycles which differ a lot one from another. These processes also feature relatively long processing cycles, which reduce the overall productivity of the plant itself.